Felipe Massa on Hungary: “It’s a place that’s very important to me”

Williams Martini Racing driver Felipe Massa has a painful history with the Hungaroring circuit, as it is the scene of the accident that saw the Brazilian knocked out by debris from the car of fellow countryman Rubens Barrichello during qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, severely fracturing his skull.

Despite the life threatening incident, that saw him miss the remainder of the 2009 season, Massa bears no real emotional scars and still loves returning to the Budapest track every year, where he now has a huge fan base following all that he has been through there.

“It’s always a great pleasure to race in Hungary. It’s a place that’s very important to me, because of the fans and because of everything that happened with my accident there.

“I have a lot of support from the people there. I love the place and always have a lot of pleasure to go back to Budapest to race.”

Since joining Williams in 2014, Massa has only finished in the points once at the Hungarian Grand Prix, so he will be hoping to change that this weekend by finishing inside the top ten.

So far this season Williams have tended to struggle during qualifying, giving their drivers a huge disadvantage on race day, as they have to work their way through the field before they can get down to the serious racing.

Having started from way down the order in fourteenth place at Silverstone last time out, Massa, who is renowned for his exceptional starts, is hoping to get on top of that part of the weekend this time out, to give him a fighting chance of bringing home a top end result on Sunday.